Falling In Love at a Bookstore
by DjPaulyC
Summary: Tessa and Will meet at a bookstore and things get interesting. Basically a modernization of TID. TessaxWill TessaxJem. This summary is really lame, I'm sorry.
1. New Beginnings

So this is my attempt at a modernization AU for The Infernal Devices. R&R it's been a while since I wrote a fanfic so yeah.

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The day I decided to go to the bookstore was the best I had in a long time. My Aunt had been dead six weeks to the day when I pulled the shop's front door open and heard the pleasant _Ding! _of the bell. My brother Nate was a lawyer for some big firm and had been transferred to their London office 6 months before Aunt died. As soon as he heard the news I was sent a plane ticket and a hand written letter telling me to pack the essentials and get on a plane to England. So I packed up all I could and left behind my books, my flat screen, my dresser, my bed and left the tiny New York apartment I had grown up in to move to a strange new city in a much older country with a new school and weird accents. I had officially come to London two weeks earlier and Nate gave me his credit card and told me to buy whatever I could, within reason, to make up for what I had left behind. So I was shopping around and the first place I went was the bookstore.

At home I had almost an entire library. The walls of my room were decorated mostly by shelves filled to the brim with books. Some shelves were even double lined with them. Most of them were fiction but I had a few non-fiction books as well. I had probably read more books between the ages of eleven and sixteen than most Americans would read in their entire life. Now, when I say novels I don't mean 50 Shades of Gray kind of novels. I mean classics. I loved Victorian Literature; the way they could paint a picture through the words in the most poetic manner truly amazed me.

So I decided the only way to fill the void and span the Atlantic to make me feel better would be to buy books. And I mean lots of books. I had a list of 10 books I wanted and I would continue to buy ten books each visit until I was satisfied and surrounded by old friends.

I went into the bookstore and it smelled _British_ like someone who enjoyed tea obviously spent a lot of time in there. It felt like a home. I was surrounded by a feeling that I knew where I was, that I could spend all my life in there. It was an amazing feeling considering that I felt so homesick for people who drive on the other side of the road, American television, and the lack of the letter U in words like "favorite" and "color".

I was greeted by the person working the counter. She had very sleek blonde hair curled up in a fancy style. Her brown eyes seemed cold and unloving, as if she wished she were somewhere else. I smiled at her and walked through the small shop looking at the books. Not just looking at them but smelling them as well. The shop had a section of used books and they were old. Like your grandmother's youngest sister old. Older than both the girl at the counter and myself. I loved the feeling that section gave me. Most of the books on the shelf were ones I was comfortable with, ones I had read many times over. Hell, there were American novels too, which made me smile.

I walked around for a while just browsing the shelves. They had a nice Employee's pick section that both fascinated and angered me. I read the backs of more books than I had intended. The sound of the bell announcing a new customer broke me out of my revere. I jumped a little at the sound as sat down the biography I had been skimming. I pulled the list of ten books out of my purse and began trying to find them. I didn't see the other customer for a long while until I made my way back to the Used Books section. I was looking for The Wide, Wide World and as I went back to the used section to see if it was placed there, I saw a boy standing in the isle.

In all of my imaginings I could have never imagined a boy a beautiful as him. He was tall, at least six feet and strong; you could see his muscles from underneath his collared shirt. And he had the most beautiful face imaginable, more beautiful than any actor with a picture on the front cover of a magazine. His eyes were violently blue but bright with intelligence underneath them that stood out. His lips made a perfect bow shape though they were not pulled into a smile, they looked soft and warm. And his dark black hair was messy and wanted cutting but he pulled it off perfectly. I flushed slightly when I realized I had been staring at him so I turned and began looking aimlessly at another book on a shelf not far from where he was standing.

"Oliver Twist." I heard a voice say quietly behind me. I was covered in goose flesh not seconds after the voice spoke and I knew instinctively that the voice was that of the boy I had been staring at. His voice was normal and most clearly British. I don't know if I was expecting more from his voice or if I was delighted that someone so angelic sounded so mundane.

"What?" I asked as I turned to face him, the book still in my hand. I was so nervous to even utter that one word that I knew my hand must be shaking.

"The book," He pointed at it clutched in my grasp, "Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. Have you read it before?" He asked. I looked down at the book and I realized it was Oliver Twist.

"Um, yes I have and I've seen the musical _Oliver_. Have you ever seen it?" I asked him in return.

"Once. I was not entirely anxious to go but I got dragged and I ended up loving it. It did some justice to Dickens's novel, don't you think?" He told me. He spoke as if he thought was everything funny and yet terribly sad at the same time.

"I supposed. Who are you?" I asked him. I wanted to know his name, I wanted to speak it on my lips. I don't know why I felt that way suddenly but I did.

"Herondale. William Herondale. But most everybody calls me Will. And you?" He stuck his hand out. _Mr. Herondale._

"Theresa Gray. Tessa." I took his hand and shook it, enjoying the sparks that raced their way up my arm as I did so.

"Good to meet you Miss Gray." He said politely pulling away.

"You as well Mr. Herondale." I smiled at him and he turned on his heel and walked away. I was so shocked that he just disappeared on me that I was left standing there for several minutes completely dazed.


	2. By The Angel

Alright, so this one is in Will's point of view. I decided I wanted both sides of the story told. So, R&R and such. . . Enjoy :)

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What in the Angel's name did I think I was doing? Walking into a mundane bookstore unglamored and picking up conversation with a Mundane girl? Sure she was pretty, gray eyes and brown hair, but I shouldn't have done it. She knew my name, knew my face. What would she do when she found out there wasn't even a trace of me?

I entered very uneasy territory. I wasn't used to having to account for my own actions and it was making me apprehensive. What I needed was to go talk to my best friend, my brother, Jem.

Jem Carstairs was the exact opposite of myself. He was the light to my dark, the logic to my madness, the calm to my anger. He was my blood brother. And if anyone knew what to do about a pretty girl . . . it was me. Curse the Angel! I was the one who was good with women. All kinds of women. Jem, however, was saving himself for the right one. He wanted to wait until he found the one he wanted to spend the rest of his short life with. Jem was a saint. Godlike. I was envious about how ethereal he was.

Jem was dying. Ever since I had known him when he came to the London Institute when we were both 12 he had been dying. When he lived with his parents at the Shanghai Institute he was tortured by a Demon whose nest was killed by Jem's mother and it took its revenge on Jem and his parents; killing his parents and poisoning Jem. Now he was destined to take a bit of drugs every day and die slowly and live for a short while instead of not taking the drugs and dying painfully and fast. Jem felt that he didn't have time for frivolous relationships or flirtations. He was a dying breed of man; a Victorian Hero directly out of a Jane Austen novel or a Bronte sister's book. He was beautiful in a way that made people look at him but so frail people usually looked away quickly. He hid in my shadows.

I needed to talk this out. I wanted to see the Mundane girl again but at the same time I knew that wasn't allowed. I wasn't allowed to be attracted to her. And yet I was. I wanted her and it was so indescribable to me the way I felt and the way I wanted to make her feel.

I raced home, back to the institute. I marched up to Jem's room and knocked on the door. No answer. I opened it and it seemed Jem was not in his room. I searched a few of his other favorite haunts, the music room, the library, the training room, but here was no trace of him. None. Where had he gone? I found our maid, Sophie, in the hallway outside my room.

"Hello, Soph. Have you seen Jem?" I asked her. I was being unusually polite to her and I knew she must be a bit confused.

"He's out." She said simply opening up my door and going in to get laundry I assumed from the basket in her hand. My room was a bit of a mess, covered in books, dirty laundry, and uncleared tea cups.

"Out where?" I demanded, not so polite.

"He didn't say. But I think you know where. If I had to take a guess I would say he went to the coffee shop. You know he loves that human kind of thing." She said matter-of-factly.

I let out a noise of frustration and trudged outside in the rain right into the heart of London. I couldn't understand Jem's fascination with human things. He was always going to the coffee shop to see the people. Jem also loved music, so if he wasn't at the coffee shop he was in the record store. I would never understand his love of such things. We were different; Jem loved music but hated books, hated novels and poetry. All of the things I loved. We were opposites in every possible way, I felt.

On the street, not far from the bookstore I had been in earlier, a young woman ran almost head first into me. She looked scared or nervous or worse, in danger. I grabbed her shoulders as she almost fell down. "Miss Gray?" I asked when a pair of familiar grey eyes found my face.

"Mr. Herondale?" She asked breathlessly. She pulled away from my grasp. "We have to get out of here." And she grabbed my hand and pulled me down the block and into an alley way.

"What is going on?" I asked her. I was perplexed as to what was happening. I was the warrior; the one who was supposed to protect her from harm.

"I was being followed. I'm almost sure of it. Someone came up to me and tried to grab me, like some kind of Sex Trafficking business. I didn't like it at all." She crossed her arms over her chest and made a face.

"What was following you? I may be able to help. What did they say?" I was checking things off a list. It sounded like something I would have to take care of.

"Something about me being different. About me changing. I was, well this is going to sound strange, but I was getting memories of being someone else. Like I changed into someone else." She looked scared.

"Do you know who they were? The people trying to take you?" I had started pulling out my seraph blade without thinking.

"They called themselves Mrs. Black and Mrs. Dark. The Dark Sisters is what the business card said. They told me they were tutors, that they would help me." I took a heaving breath and sobbed silently. She was obviously afraid.

"Okay. I've heard of them. We're going to get to the bottom of this. Where did you see them last?" I was going to drop her off at her home and then go after them when she screeched beside me. I didn't know what she had yelled but as they approached I realized she had yelled "THERE!"

I pulled out my blade, named it, and jumped on top of one of them. It screeched and flailed away from me. The alley way was the perfect place for a show down, even if we weren't glamored. No body walked past as I swung my blade around.

"This does not concern you Angel Boy. This is a matter of the Magister, not the Nephillim." Her taloned hands had grabbed my wrist. I flinched away from her.

"Will! Look out!" I head Tessa scream from a corner of the ally way. I moved swiftly to my left as I pulled out my cell phone. I knew if I could call Henry that he'd come bail me out of this situation.

I tossed my phone in an arch toward the girl. "Press speed dial number 4!" I called out to her. I don't know if she heard me but I kept fighting my way through regardless.

A few seconds later, Tessa Gray with all of her bravery was coming after one of the sister with a sharp piece of glass clutched in her hand. Where she was holding it in her palm she was bleeding bright red drops spilling from her skin. She didn't seem to notice, or care. The ally way was littered in broken glass bottles and trash so I knew she could have found that piece easily, but the fact that she wasn't running away was astounding to me.


	3. Everything Goes Black

**Sorry for the short chapter** but I needed it to be shorter to make the next one the way I want it to be. So back to Tessa's point of view for a few chapters. . . So yeah. Enjoy. Review. Ect.

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I didn't know what was happening. A part of my mind was telling me to run and run fast while another part was telling me to stay and fight. I could feel the blood running down my wrist from where I was clutching the piece of glass but the insignificant pain seemed less than important. I knew that Will Herondale was in some kind of fight and I needed to either just be present or fight right there with him.

I saw one of the talon handed Sisters go after Will from behind as he gained some composure. I was about to fling myself at her when Will excitedly yelled out "Henry!"

I didn't know who Henry was but I caught sight of wild ginger hair. The man jumped right into battle with another man who was tall, tan, and muscular. I pushed myself back against the wall trying to figure out my next move as I watched the battle in silence. A few moments of this and I was ready to head into the skirmish. I moved toward Will when a pair of hands encircled me. Panicked, I bit into the one closest to my face. "Will! Will, she _bit_ me!" A voice exclaimed after letting me go. His voice was undoubtedly British with an East London accent attached to Will's name.

"Did she Henry?" Will appeared in front us in a moment. It seemed the other man was handling the freaky creatures well enough on his own.

"That will teach you to grab ladies you aren't acquainted with." I said with venom.

"She has a point." Will stated simply. A moment later Will was tense and I was numb. Something had been thrown from the other side of the alley way. I didn't feel anything but Mr. Herondale was the first the point it out. "You have glass in your shoulder." I looked down at the shard sticking out of my left shoulder and then everything went black.


	4. Shadowhunters Warlocks and Downworlders

Continuing with Tessa's point of view. . . here is the longer chapter I promised! R&R. Um, tell me how you feel about Charlotte's bluntness and let me know if I should tone her down a bit. But other than that ENJOY!

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When I woke up, I had no idea where I was or what when it was, or even who I was for a moment of time. I recognized that I was in a very comfortable bed with the sheets pulled up over my chest. The ceiling was painted with what kind of looked like clouds but could have just been the paint fading. I stared at them for long while until I could recollect what happened.

I had been chased by two ladies who claimed they owned me. I ran into Will Herondale whom I had met at a bookstore. He pulled out a glowing sword and fought them off. I tried to help with a piece of glass that I clutched in my hand, that hand was wrapped in a pretty white bandage now. There was piece of glass thrown from somewhere, and it ended up in my shoulder. At the time of the battle it seemed small but feeling the bandage wrapped around my torso I had a feeling it was a lot larger than I had originally thought.

A few minutes later I had fallen back asleep and when I woke again I heard a voice in my head, "She's definitely something."

"But what exactly?" A woman's voice rang out.

"She's not a lycanthrope, or a Night Child, and she has no mark of Lilith, I cannot be sure what she is." The voice said again. It rang in my head as if I was thinking the words myself but I knew that I was hearing them.

"But she's most definitely a Downworlder?" The woman's voice was curious, as if she were shocked of this fact.

"Yes."

At that I opened my eyes. I nearly jumped out my skin when I saw what was looking down at me. It was something with his eyes looking hollowed out and his lips sewed shut. I did jump out of my bed, however. I tried the door with no success, it was locked. I pushed myself against the wall, whimpering in the back of my throat all the while. "Don't touch me!" I warned the figure.

A woman was sitting at a tea table set up not far from the bed I had just been in stood up. "It's alright. Brother Enoch may look scary but he means no harm."

I shook my head violently. "I don't care." I whispered.

"I will wait outside." Brother Enoch's voice echoed in my head as he pulled the locked door open and walked out.

"We will not hurt you here at the institute, Miss Tessa Gray." The woman said to me. I didn't know how she knew my name or how she knew who I was.

The woman was petite, and by petite and I mean she was small. Probably the smallest woman I'd ever seen in real life. She was thin to the point where I could have wrapped one hand around her waist and she was short. Her stature, however, was almost overlooked by how she held herself; her presence seemed to overtake the entire room. I was looking at her from the wall when she introduced herself, "Hello Miss, I am Charlotte Branwell." She smiled at me.

"Hello?" I mumbled it, I had no need to introduce myself she already knew my name.

"Miss Gray," Charlotte's voice was pretty, stern but very enjoyable, "do you know why you are here?"

"No. I was in an alley way and now I am in a bed, locked in a room I have never seen before." I said quietly. I was still trying to fit the pieces together but they weren't making sense.

"Will brought you here." Will! I knew him! Will Herondale with violet blue eyes. "You had a large piece of glass in your shoulder, that we took care of, and you passed out. You hit your head pretty hard on the pavement from what we figure." Charlotte told me. I remembered the glass but after that there was nothing.

"Do you know who was after me?" I asked her moving from the wall back to the bed. My feet were getting cold since I wasn't socks or shoes.

"I think you already know the answer to that." She said looking at me pointedly.

"Mrs. Black and Mrs. Dark. Associates of my brothers." I knew them faintly. My brother was their defense attorney. We had dinner together once or twice.

"Do you know what they are?" She asked me kindly.

"No. I thought they were just people who needed to be defended."

"They're warlocks." Charlotte told me bluntly.

"Warlock? You're crazy! This is not Harry Potter!" I was incredulous. I didn't understand, warlocks were not real. No way.

"It's funny that you say that. No, there is a world shadowed from the Human one. It's called the Shadow World. I am a part of it, Will is a part of it, and you'll find that you too are a part of it." The words she said were not hash just blunt.

"Mrs. Dark called Will an Angel Boy, I think the word she used was Nephillim." I said after a moment of thought. I was holding back tears.

"Yes. Shadowhunters. We are the Avengers of the real world. The good guys. We battle demons and sometimes Downworlders when they're doing wrong." She moved to sit on the edge of the bed I was in.

"Shadowhunter?" I asked. "What am I? Am I also a Shadowhunter. That thing mentioned I was a Downworlder. I don't understand." I was trying to be logical about the crazy.

"No, you're not a Shadowhunter. A Downworlder is someone who has demon blood in them, Vampires, Werewolves, Warlocks. They are all Downworlders."

"And what am I?" I whispered afraid to the answer, afraid not to know.

"We're not sure what you. There's a possibility that you're a Warlock but you have no Warlock's Mark." She told me gently.

"Warlock's Mark?" I asked looking at her hands. She had a tattoo on the backside of her hand. It looked like an eye. I thought it was pretty cool looking.

"You saw the Dark Sister's hands I presume. The talons. That is the mark of a Warlock. Or at least one of them. The Marks can take any form ideally. But you have none." Charlotte got back up and was pouring a cup of tea from the table. She brought it back to me.

"Thank you. So what am I doing here? What is my brother going to do? Where are the clothes I was in when I was in the alley? What's going on? I still don't understand." I pulled at the night gown I was currently wearing.

"We went to your apartment and it appears your brother's gone. I don't know where he went. There looked like a struggle but we can't be sure. You're here due to the fact that you have information that you're not sharing with us. I know this because I found a few of your Diary pages. I think after dinner you'll be more informed you'll understand." She reminded me of a mother, or in my case an Aunt. Charlotte was caring and nice but blunt and serious. It was an interesting contrast.

"So where am I exactly?" I asked ignoring the bit about my diary.

"The London Institute of course. The Shadowhunter Institute." Charlotte was cheery when answering this question.

"You said you went through my Diary, so you know then?" I asked her.

"Know about your Changing? Yes, I know. How long have you been doing it?" She asked me unabashedly.

"A few weeks. I'm missing time, there are blocks on what I remember but it's been since I've been here in London." I told her.

"You have blocks?" She asked as if she already knew the answer.

"Some." I relented. I wasn't sure how much I could trust her.

A moment later, a woman with dark hair entered the room. "Miss Gray, this is Sophie Collins our maid. Or for more creative terms she's pretty much a lady's maid. I asked her to bring in one of our Jessamine's dresses for you. I hope it will fit." Charlotte introduced us.

"It's a pleasure, Miss Gray." Sophie said tipping her head in my direction.

"You as well." I told her in return.

Charlotte rose to her feet and walked toward the door, "The bathroom is that way," she said pointing, "and I will take you down to dinner in a half an hour."

"Charlotte!" I called after her into the hallway.

Charlotte turned around and looked at me, "I'm worried about my brother. I'll tell you what I know about all of this stuff. The Dark Sisters, the Magister, changing, all of it. If you promise me you will help get my brother back." I was pleading.

She smiled which gave her petite features a nice shine, "Of course Miss Gray. I was hoping you would come around." And she walked off back down the hall.

I went back into the room and Sophie the Maid had started drawing me a bath. I followed her into the fairly large sized bathroom. In one corner sat a giant claw footed tub and in the other a shower area. A large sink sat along another wall. "I brought in some of Jessie's clothes, although I don't think that they will fit very well, but it's the best we can do.

"It's awfully nice of this Jessamine to let me borrow her clothes." I told the maid.

"Nonsense. That dress has been hanging in the back of her closet for ages with the tags still on. If she wanted to wear it she would have by now. When you get out I'll help you do something with your hair and possibly your makeup." And Sophie let the room. Miss Collins was both nice and fascinating which rarely seemed like a possible combination.

I undressed feeling the weight of the bandages wrapped around me like a cinderblock. I didn't realize how tired and sore I was until I could no longer hide the bruises on my body from my eyes. I slipped into the warm liquid bandages and all without caring. The water smelled like lavender and it was refreshing and relaxing which were two things I needed after my conversation with Charlotte. I still didn't understand but I was hoping after a dinner with these _Shadowhunter_ people that I would maybe know more, or understand better. They didn't seem unkind, if that meant anything. And at least one of them was ridiculously attractive.

I pushed myself deeper into the steamy bath and closed my eyes. I was beginning to think that I may have a slight crush on Will Herondale. He was amazingly beautiful and he read books and he was a good fighter. He was practically a god. With my eyes closed I pictured his hand in mine as we ran down the street. I pictured what it would be like to feel those hands caress my face. And I imagined his lips leaning closer to mine, closer and closer still until they were lingering right above mine and then how they would feel when he finally pressed them to mine. I pictured those lips saying my name, whispering it in the dark of night when no one else was around. I sat up abruptly because I wasn't going to fantasize about a boy I didn't even know, a boy who was not human.

A voice in the back of my mind whispered naughtily, _According to Charlotte Branwell you're also not human. . . _


	5. Fire, Will, and Changing

Alright so, more of Tessa's point of view yay! I tried to make this chapter as close to the book as I could, because I think it's a pretty important one. I will eventually explain Tessa's issue with changing and whatever so stay tuned! Read, review, enjoy, ect. :)

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As promised, Charlotte picked me up at the door a half an hour later. She took my arm as if we were in an old Victorian story and she guided me down an intricate and confusing hallway into the dining room. The dining room was huge. And bright. There was a large chandelier in hanging from the ceiling and it let out a violently bright yellowish light. A long table sat in the middle of the room that could easily sit 20 people comfortably. Along one wall was a giant mirror that followed the length of the room and the other was occupied with a large side board that had a number of dishes on it. The table was only set for 5 despite it being so large. And it was all ordinary. Everything from the expensive china to the table and chairs was ordinary. I was amazed that these strange people with their own weird beliefs and lives could have such normal ordinary objects. I kept waiting for something to pop out and make it seem less than normal.

When I entered the dining room with Charlotte Will was sitting down purposefully ignoring another girl, a very beautiful blonde with brown eyes. Or at least she would have been beautiful if it weren't for the scowl on her face. Her dress was rather low cut shirt that sparkled in the light from above. Her hair was long and straight as a pin. Will looked up with relief as we entered the room.

"Will, you remember Miss Gray?" Charlotte prompted.

Will smiled at me which caused me to flush all over. I bent my head down as I smiled a foolish smile. "My recollection of her," Will was still looking at me when I looked up, "is most vivid indeed." He was wearing a nice gray button up shirt and jeans that looked like slacks. The gray color brought out the blue in his eyes making them look less violet and more like the ocean.

"Miss Gray this is Miss Jessamine Lovelace. Jessie, do look up and say hello to our guest." Jessie looked bored and uninterested in my presence.

"So pleased to make your acquaintance." Jessamine muttered. Jessie was obviously pretty, gorgeous actually. She was all blonde hair, brown eyes and creamy perfect complexion. I was jealous of how perfect she looked in the blue shirt. One of my classic novels would have called her an English rose. As I was looking at Jessamine with adoration and jealousy I noticed Will cast a look of pure loathing and detest in her direction. They reminded me of siblings but I assumed that they weren't.

"It's great to meet you Jessamine. Thank you for the dress." I said pulling at the red sun dress's hem. The dress was beautiful. Truly. It was a bright red that reminded me of strawberries. It had a halter top straps that closed behind my neck. It was a little too tight around my chest and a little bit around my waist but not in a way that made me look bad. You could tell it was too small but the entire dress made me look older I thought. The hem of the dress was also a little short, meaning I was probably a good few inches taller than the girl sitting at the table.

"It's nice to see you again Miss Gray." Will said with his head down. Charlotte moved to the head of the table and gestured me to sit on her left, beside Will.

"You as well Mr. Herondale." I said taking my seat next to him. He avoided my eye as much as he could I noticed as I walked the room.

"Is Jem not coming to dinner?" Will asked. He looked concerned at the empty chair beside me.

"Jem is not feeling well. He's having one of his days." Charlotte said sadly, almost motherly.

"He's always having one of his days." Jessie said with a disgusted tone. I wasn't sure what her resentment was but it was clear on her face as clear as the rings that littered each of her fingers.

"But he was out earlier I figured-" Will started but was cut off by Sophie entering followed by a middle aged woman with gray hair. They served us beef roast with potatoes and vegetables. It was a seemingly normal dinner for people so out of the ordinary. Sophie placed a basket of fresh rolls on the table and only then did I realize that I was incredibly hungry. Will picked up the basket and offered me one which I took gratefully. I didn't even use the creamy yellow butter the old woman had put on the table after the basket was set down and just dug into the bread. I ate it in almost three bites and only checked myself when I caught Jessamine staring at me openly.

"You know," She started resting her chin in her hand. "I don't think I've ever seen a warlock eat before. I supposed you have no need to ever diet you could just zap off the weight with a snap of your fingers can't you?"

"We don't know that she's a warlock, Jessie." Will said, he sounded almost angry at her for saying such a thing. I found it strange because wasn't I the one who was supposed to be offended?

Jessamine ignored him and leaned forward across the table at me, "Is it awful to being so evil?" She said it with general curiosity. "Are you worried that you'll go to Hell? What do you think the devil is like?"

I leaned forward so I was looking her directly in the eye, "I don't know but I could summon him up in a trice if you'd like to meet him. Being a warlock and all." Then I sat back and continued to help myself to the food.

Will completely lost it, howling with laughter next to me as Jessie narrowed her eyes at me, "There's no need to be rude." She muttered under her breath.

"Henry!" Charlotte exclaimed as a man appeared in the doorway. His red hair was bright and so were the flames that licked up his arm. I had a feeling of recognition at seeing his face.

Charlotte stood up and was looking at the man in astonishment.

"What dear?" He looked at his wife as she stared back at him agape with horror. "So sorry I'm late but I think I'm almost there."

"Henry you know you're on fire right?" Will asked him calmly from his chair.

"I was having a pretty good design session n downstairs so you could say I am on fire, I suppose. I have been working like a man possessed all day long." Henry looked excited.

"No Henry you're really on fire." Will insisted and pointed to his arm.

" Bloody hell! Do you know what this means?!" Henry exclaimed with even more excitement coloring his voice.

"That you managed to set yourself on fire again and didn't notice?" Will asked sarcastically.

"No! It means my flame retardant mixture works." As Henry spoke Will grabbed a vase from off of the table and then threw its contents onto Henry's sleeve. "This fire must have been burning for at least 15 minutes! I think I should set the other sleeve on fire and time it to see how long it takes."

"Henry, if you purposefully set yourself on fire divorce proceedings would be in order. Now sit down and eat and say hello to our guest." Charlotte said crossing her arms across her chest. So that meant Henry was her husband. Good to know.

"You!" He said pointing me across the table from him. "You bit me!" He smiled as if it were a pleasant memory we both shared.

"Yes. I did. I'm Tessa Gray." I held out my hand to him and he shook it.

"Charlotte have you asked Miss Gray about the Dark Sisters yet? Or the Pandemonium Club?" Will asked looking past me at Charlotte.

"I know those words." I remembered seeing them, somewhere. "The club. I-I think my brother took me there once. They played awful music and he wouldn't let me dance with anyone. What is it exactly?"

"It's an organization." Charlotte began, "Mundanes, humans, who were interested in dark magic started the club long ago. At some of the meetings they try to summon demons and do spells."

"That sounds so stupid!" Jessamine laughed silently. "'Let me put on this robe and light this candle and we can all chant these nonsensical words and try to summon up Lilith!" She did laugh after her comment.

"They do more than that, Jessie." Will rolled his eyes as if this fact were obvious. "The club seems to be rather popular with the upper class Mundanes. You'd be surprised at the people involved.

"Which only makes it funnier!" Jessie chuckled again. She obviously was not interested in this business and thought the entire thing was infinitely a joke. "They have money and power in the human world, why do they need to play around with magic?"

"Good question." Charlotte said, this seemed to be ordinary conversation at the dinner table. "People who try to involve their selves with things they know nothing about often find themselves with unpleasant ends."

Will looked at her and shrugged his shoulders, his eyes grazed my face as he pulled them away from Charlotte and back to his plate. The look, however fleeting, made me shiver. "From what I understand from my many investigations on The Club, there is a great amount of gambling and other unpleasant vices going on. I checked out the address on the card Tessa had with her from the Dark Sisters and I discovered that the address led me to some kind of brothel that catered to Mundanes with less than savory tastes."

"Will!" Charlotte looked at him sternly, "I don't think that that's appropriate to say."

Jessamine perked up at the word Brothel. "No wonder you were so interested in investigating this particular case, Will."

Will, of course, pretended that Jessamine hadn't spoken a word. He turned his head to look at me and arched his beautifully sculpted eyebrows, "Have I offended you Miss Gray? I imagine that you've seen more strange things this week and that you are no longer easily shocked."

"I am not offended Mr. Herondale in the least. I promise you that. I have been to the place on the card but I could not have seen how it could have been a place like that. No one seemed to be there other than the Dark Sisters, their house maid Miranda and My brother and me as guests when we visited with them." I didn't think I was supposed to know what a brothel was, I mean well brought up woman didn't know what such places were but I had dragged my brother out of enough whore houses and bars back in New York that the word rolled right over me like water on silk.

"No, when I got there the place did seem rather barren. I think that perhaps they stopped business for a while you and your brother were there." He glanced over at Charlotte, "Do you think that Miss Gray's brother has the same capability as she does, whatever that might be."

"I'm still not going to tell you, William." Charlotte's voice was final. "Although if he did it would make sense why they took him."

"So you were being followed by the Dark Sisters?" Will started on me. I looked down at my untouched plate. "Why were you being followed? I don't see any mark on you, a Warlock's mark I mean." Will continued to fire questions at me so fast I didn't have the chance to answer any of them. He babbled but I definitely liked the sound of his voice.

"Will! Enough!" Charlotte said commanding him to shut up.

"But how do we know she isn't just some Mundane who knows about us and plans to rob us blind when we aren't looking?" Jessie asked with distaste.

I set my jaw and gazed down at my plate. I could hear my Aunt's voice in my head, Try not to lose your temper Tess. Fighting with your brother because he teases you is not becoming. What if all of these Shadowhunters thought what Jessamie thought? What if they assumed all I wanted was charity?

It was Charlotte who answered, "Tessa has convinced me of her validity as a Downworlder and that is all the proof you need." Charlotte's voice was commanding; as if she really is the only one who needed to be convinced.

"You can keep it a secret Tess," Will leaned down to me, "but secrets have a way of coming out regardless of how well we try to hide them. And the weight of them can become incredibly unbearable after a while." His voice was soft as he whispered into my ear. His breath stirred the small tufts of hair around my ears.

Knowing he was right, and knowing I needed to know what I was and how I learned of this, I turned to the icy blonde across from Will. "May I have something of yours? One of your rings perhaps?" I asked her holding out my hand for it.

"See what I said about robbing us blind?" Jessie scowled and leaned back in her chair.

"C'mon Jessie, just give her one, you have enough. What's it going to hurt?" Will asked looking at her.

"Oh fine!" She plucked the ring off of her littlest finger and handed it to me. I looked at it, its bright ruby stone, and closed my fingers around it and closed my eyes.

"This had better be worth it." I could hear Jessie's contempt even though I couldn't see her pinched up face.

It's always the same. At first there is nothing just darkness and my own thoughts echoing in the inside of my brain. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere there is a pinprick of light. It starts in the back of mind and as I reach for it slowly grows until it consumes me. It was hard sometime to strip away the shyness I felt when I finally reached the light. I was always most afraid of this part but I had done it enough times to know that I was in no real danger. I knew what I was doing. As I reached the light it consumed me, covering me in warmth making me feel light and airy. Then as I pulled the light over myself like a blanket or a sweater and I could feel it covering every inch of me, the weight of something new on my body. As it does so, the light grows into a blinding illumination surrounding me so I can't see any more darkness. And then it's over, and I'm inside someone else's skin, someone else's mind.

Jessamine's mind.

I didn't care to read her thought so I stayed at the edge of her consciousness feeling the buzz of her general emotions. Jessamine was angry and she also longer for something. I could not tell what it was she longed for but it was there the feeling of wanting something so much that you dreamed about it all of the time.

My eyes flew open; I could no longer hold the light behind my eyes any longer. I was still at the table with Jessie's ring still clutched in my hand so hard I knew I would have a mark in my palm later. My skin felt itchy and unfamiliar as was common when I changed myself into someone else. It was unfamiliar because it was not my own. I felt odd, Jessamine's weight was different, her stature different. Jessie's hair tickled my shoulders as I moved my head up to face the four pairs of eyes that I knew would be staring at me.

It was several minutes before anyone said anything at all. "By the Angel!" Charlotte was the first to speak. Will was speechless for probably the first time in his life. Henry's mouth was wide open as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. I sympathized with him, I wouldn't believe it either if I weren't the one it was happening to.

"Why hasn't anyone told me my nose was so big?!" Jessamine exclaimed clutching her nose with both hands. I was nervous of how she would take it. Seeing a perfect image of yourself, I imagined, would be a little scary. It would be like seeing your own ghost. And yet, Jessie seemed to take it in stride.

I let the Change slide off of me and shook my head to get my own body back. They were still staring at me with a mixture of shock and horror and I waited for the questioning to begin.


End file.
